


Link Neal Doesn't Journal

by shewasjustagirl



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Diary/Journal, Friendship, Tropetastic Tuesday, blood oath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 16:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11234679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewasjustagirl/pseuds/shewasjustagirl
Summary: Over the years, Link tells his journal about the Blood Oath.Written for Tropetastic Tuesday 15: Blood Oath (and incorporating TT 14: Epistolary fic)





	Link Neal Doesn't Journal

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on my phone, so go easy on me if there are weird errors and formatting things, please. <3

Sept. 19, 1992, 2 a.m. 

Dear Journal,

I know I haven't written in a long time (oh gosh, it's been a year. I can't believe I still have you). I guess it's actually the 20th now. Oops. But anyway, this seems like the kind of momentous (sp?) occasion I'll want to remember, and I can't sleep, so here's the story. 

Today I went with Rhett to the talking rock like normal - wait - you don't even know what the talking rock is. dang. Oh well... you don't need all that much explanation. It's a place where we can say anything we need to, and then we can switch and the other one has to listen. It's awesome. (Rhett thinks it was my idea because he thinks I talk a lot, but it was NOT and he talks so much more than me. If you only knew. He just seems like the quiet one to parents. These days he never shuts up when it’s just us.) But I don't mind. He has really good ideas. Like THIS ONE was. 

Anyway, today! Rhett pretty much always felt like a brother, you know? Or something like that. Something that meant a forever friend. Actual BFF. So today we made it official, and it feels like the most important thing that's ever happened to me. Thank goodness you can't talk to anyone. I would be so nervous to tell people we did this. 

We decided, Rhett and me, to become BLOOD BROTHERS. That means we have to do something together because we're joined by blood.

He thought it up and then he took off running through a pasture (I can't believe he didn't fall - he was running so fast) and then he stopped and picked up a piece of broken glass. We even wrote down our oath and signed our full names on it and smeared our blood on it to seal the deal. It's probably not legal, but it's binding. Charles Lincoln Neal and Rhett James McLaughlin are going to do something big together. Something awesome and important. 

I've got my copy behind my school ID in my wallet so I don't lose it. I'm going to carry it around until we do whatever the big thing is. Then one day I'm going to put it in a frame or something in our office. We’ll probably have a whole building in Raleigh or New York or Japan or somewhere. Now I sound like Rhett. 

I was a little worried about high school, but now I know we're going to be fine. I've still got Rhett, even if it is a little scary. But LIKE I SAID you aren't telling anyone any of this. I'm not going to act scared. I don't guess I have any reason to be now, anyway, do I? 

_Charles Lincoln “Link” Neal_  
(Doesn't that sound official?!)

P.S. Cutting our palms was stupid. My mom is going to kill me if she finds out I did this on purpose. And it hurts so bad. But listen up, journal. I'd do it again every day if it meant we got to really do something amazing together. 

P.P.S. I didn't pass out when Rhett cut my hand open. I think it's because he was doing his best to hold me up and I was doing my best not to think about the blood. Anyway, it worked. And now we get to do something awesome. 

 

________________________  
Nov. 18, 2001, 10 pm

Journal,

I'm pretty pissed off that I somehow still have you and don't have my freaking wallet, but apparently writing helps calm the nerves. Don't get used to it though. This isn't me committing to journaling. 

GOD. I don't care about my ID or the money or the credit cards. The fucking oath was in that wallet. THE oath. And I didn't take a picture of it or xerox it or anything like that. Because I'm an idiot and believed it was meant to be that I'd have it forever. I figured I'd surprise Rhett with it in a frame one day or something. Maybe when we finally get an office together. I've torn my house apart looking for it. I even went to momma’s and tore up my old room there. But it was in the wallet and I know it. 

How could I have been so stupid? 

Rhett said it wasn't my fault, but it was. I turned my back for just a second at the post office, and my wallet was gone. Who does that? I would have given them the money. I'd let anyone have my money and credit cards and steal my identity or whatever it took if it meant getting that stupid piece of notebook paper back. 

I still have this journal. I still have the receipt from my groceries last week. I have a card from my great aunt’s neighbor from the wedding. I've managed to hang onto a freakin pizza coupon that's been expired for three months. But the most important piece of paper (oh hell, don't tell Christy I said that) The most important piece of paper I've ever had to keep up with is gone. 

The people who took it have no idea what they did to me. I know that. I’m not really even mad at them. Just mad at myself. 

I may go search the dumpsters around there and see if they dumped the parts of the wallet they thought weren't important. They have no idea that old weathered slip of paper is the most valuable thing in it. I'd pay anything to get it back. 

At least Rhett remembers. We talked about it some and he went easy on me like I said, but to me he did seem disappointed. Lately I've thought about asking him if the oath meant as much to him as it does to me. Or if he was serious about us doing something big. Because right now I'm just an engineer in North Carolina and we don't even work together and the oath is gone and I feel pretty small. 

Guess Rhett's sort of always made me feel bigger. Like him. Like those birds who think they're cows or whatever. That sounds so stupid. Just like me and my stupid wallet losing self. 

\- _Link_ , the stupid idiot who can't take care of himself, much less a wife or a wallet or his best friend

_____________________  
Nov. 20, 2014, 4 PM

Journal,

Apparently you're who I talk to about the oath. So here goes. I'm trying to figure out how to apologize and maybe you can help. 

So, to follow up on last time, I'm still an idiot. But a lot has changed. Of course a lot has changed - it's been more than a decade. I'm so good at journaling. 

So Rhett and I are in California now, and we're following our dreams. You know what? It wasn't more than a few months after the last time I wrote that we quit our jobs, I think. We had a big talk after my wallet took legs and the oath went with it. Then our friends and wives started encouraging us to go for it, and for some reason we believed it when they said we could. 

Mostly because we believe in each other. 

It's awesome out here. We both have kids - I have three, Lily, Lincoln (the fourth - I know I know), and Lando. Lando James. 

And we have this daily morning show on YouTube called Good Mythical Morning. That's where me being a huge idiot comes into play: I accidentally made Rhett think I found the oath. 

I thought going through old stuff on the show would be fun, and just the other day when I went through my old soccer bag, I found a picture of Coach Brandt, which was hilarious. He had a giant mustache, and also, what? Why did I have that? 

But anyway, I also found a note from when Janna Howard broke up with me sophomore year. Christy and I both thought it was hilarious, so I decided to show it to Rhett on the show today. On More. It's just the after show. Same deal. 

So anyway, I start saying I found the picture and this old piece of paper and Rhett goes “no no no no no” and HOW didn't I realize he was going to think I found the oath? I watched the footage back and he looks so hopeful. The way he was looking at me…

Again - I'm an idiot. 

So I really need to apologize. And I really need to tell him not to hope for that. It really is gone. But we're still chasing our dreams, you know? 

And I know another thing, too -- I never quite asked directly, but I know Rhett cared as much about the oath as I did. 

We’re still working hard, and we're still working together, and we're getting a hell of a lot closer to feeling like we've done something really big. So I guess the oath was binding after all. 

Thanks for listening or whatever. 

I think I'm just going to tell Rhett I'm sorry. Maybe just tell him what I keep telling you - I was stupid. I hope he doesn't take it the wrong way, because obviously the oath means a lot to me too. I just already knew what was in the bag. 

\- _Link_ , World’s Worst Best Friend who somehow manages to keep the world's best one

______________________________  
Dec. 23, 2016, midnight or so

Sorry to be vague, Journal, but my phone is plugged in across the room and I'm in bed. You don't need the time. Who cares?

Anyway, I'm in New York City for mine and Rhett's SECOND appearance on THE TONIGHT SHOW. YEAH. THE Tonight Show. 

So here's the story. We made it on the show last time thanks to someone on their staff being a fan of GMM. And we did a ‘Will It?’ because it's a crowd pleaser and of course I never miss an opportunity to retch on camera. At least I handled the gross stuff better than Jimmy Fallon. It was pretty hilarious. 

And Jimmy loved it! They got a bunch of YouTube views, so that helped. So anyway, we got to come back on the show today and talk about the book and reveal the cover - which is AWESOME - Rhett agreed to make it a reprise of the cereal bath. In suits. It's great. 

Anyway, here's why I'm writing. I was a little nervous and I was thinking about how big of a deal the Tonight Show is and how this is exactly the kind of moment I would have loved to give Rhett the framed oath. It's almost Christmas and we're doing something really big and I think it would have been so cool. I always wanted to do that. So I told him. And I told him I was upset. 

But Rhett just grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me into the wall, and honestly I thought he might punch me or kiss me or something. Could have gone either way. But instead he said something like “Listen up, Neal. We don't need paper.” And he showed me this scar on his palm. Apparently some of the glass got stuck in there and he didn't say anything because he thought his parents would have killed him for being that stupid. (I mean, it was stupid. We say sharp rocks now because picking up some random broken glass was that dumb.)

And then we talked about the oath ON THE TONIGHT SHOW. THE Tonight Show now has a segment of us talking about it. So Rhett was right. When we have that, and our company, and the book, and Buddy System - and we're still doing all of it together - we really don't need paper I don't guess. 

So that's a heck of a happy ending, journal. Don't tell Rhett I wrote in you again or he'll go off about how I need to journal for stress relief. No offense, but I don't think I'd like it all that much. 

I think I will keep you though, if I can manage to keep up with you. 

- _Link_ , the luckiest man in the whole freaking world

P.S. I'd still give up (almost) anything to get that piece of paper back.

**Author's Note:**

> I love feedback! Any comments or kudos are much appreciated! <3
> 
> Come find me on [Tumblr](http://clemwasjustagirl.tumblr.com/) if you're into that kind of thing.


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